Machine for washing spread out printed cloth



Sept. 19, 1961 G. MANETTI 3,000,201

MACHINE FOR WASHING SPREAD OUT PRINTED CLOTH Filed May 7, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEY G. MANETTI Sept. 19, 1961 MACHINE FOR WASHING SPREAD OUT PRINTED CLOTH Filed May 7, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR ATTORNEY P 1961 G. MANETTI 3,000,201

MACHINE FOR WASHING SPREAD OUT PRINTED CLOTH Filed May 7, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 IN VENTOR ATTORNEY United States Patent 6 3,000,201 MACHINE FOR WASHING SPREAD OUT PRINTED CLOTH Guglielmo Manetti, Milan, Italy, asslgnor to Comerio Ercole, S.p.A. Filed May 7, 1958, Ser. No. 733,538

Claims priority, application Italy May 9, 1957 1 Claim. (Cl. 68-62) This invention relates to apparatus for washing printed cloth.

It is an object of the invention to provide improved means for washing printed cloth and subjecting the same to a sequence of operations including immersion, pressing and sprinkling.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved roller system to handle printed cloth wherein the printed face of the cloth is never put into contact with the rollers and consequently cannot be damaged thereby.

To achieve the above and other of its objectives, the invention contemplates, briefly, apparatus for washing cloth having a printed face and a plain face and comprising a plurality of sets of cylinders disposed along a spiral path of concentric polygons of which at least one set, but less than all of the sets, is positioned so as to be immersed in a washing liquid, the cloth being fully spread out on the cylinders with the plain face contacting the cylinders and with the printed face facing outwardly from the latter, the cloth passing through said cylinders along said spiral path such that, at least once during each convolution of the spiral, the fabric is plunged into the liquid and then passes successively upon sequential of the rollers for being pressed thereby on one side only; a set of spraying nozzles being operatively associated with the rollers and positioned such that each nozzle sprinkles the cloth on the side opposite to the side pressed by the rollers, a set of rotating brushes being provided at the end of the spiral path to brush the fabric, and sprinklers being operatively associated with said brushes.

This apparatus will next be described in greater detail, along with further objects and features thereof, with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a lateral view of the combination of two units constituting apparatus of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear view of one of the units of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is, on enlarged scale, a sectional view of the other of said units.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the disposition of the rollers in said one unit.

FIG. 5 shows a detail of FIG. 4 as viewed from above along line V-V.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are respectively a front and a sectional view of a detail of a roller employed in the apparatus.

In the drawings (FIGS. 1-5), the arrangement is constituted by a unit A in which a first washing takes place and by a unit B comprising several washing groups effecting an additional washing. Unit A is constituted by a frame 10, in this case of hexagonal form, having incorporated therein a tub 11 and on which pairs of bars 12 are directed toward the edges of the frame, at least one of said pairs of bars being placed inside tub 11 and therefore being immersed in liquid in the same.

Each pair of bars supports a series of externally driven rollers 13, a tube 14 being provided in parallel to each roller, except with respect to the immersed ones (FIG. 4), each said tube having nozzles providing jets directed against the cloth passing over the associated cylinder.

A diagonally disposed roller 15 is provided in the central space left free by rollers 13. Furthermore an idling, backing roller 16 is provided, against which the cloth coming out of the machine presses as will be explained.

The deflecting centralizing and spreading-out roller 15 (FIGS. 6 and 7) is supported by a strong fork shaped spar 17, the prongs of which end With a rounded or bulbous profile 19, the driven roller 15 being placed between the fork prongs so that its axis is practically in the same plane as the axes of the profiles 19. The task of said profiles 19 is that of keeping most of the cloth T from touching roller 15 so that only a small portion of the cloth is in touch with the roller and the friction caused by the wet cloth on the roller is minimized.

To avoid eventual bending of the roller 15, a sleeve 20 is provided on its middle part which is suported and controlled by spar 17. Furthermore said roller is provided with a multiple warm thread which is directed clock-wise in the left half and counter clockwise in the right half, so as to maintain the cloth spread out and tight in the center ('FIG. 6).

With special reference to FIG. 4, the cloth T enters at the top of the machine with its printed face F turned upwards. It first passes over a return roller 40 and successively along all of the rollers 13 so as to follow a spiral path through the whole machine, said cloth being immersed in the liquid in tub 11 when it engages the rollers 13 which are immersed in said tub. Further, it is hit by the jets from nozzles 14 when it i outside of said tub. After having passed several times (in the present case five times) through the whole machine via a series of concentric polygons froming a spiral path and having been dipped five times in the tub, the cloth comes to the last roller 13 from which is passes to the diagonal roller 15 (FIG. 5). Passing from roller 13' to roller 15, the cloth is forced to undergo a change of direction of before it is returned to the idling backing roller 16, from which it leaves the main opening of the machine and passes to the second washing unit B.

The cloth T passes through a free space between two adjacent rollers, towards the end of the last spinal, in this space are mounted brushes 37 opposite to which supporting rollers 38 are placed for engaging the other side of the cloth. Sprayers 39 are mounted close to brushes 37, said sprayers ejecting their jets towards the cloth close to its point of tangency with the brush.

What I claim is:

Apparatus for washing a web of cloth printed on one side of its two faces, said apparatus comprising a vat for a Washing liquid, a plurality of substantially parallel rollers arranged in arrays radially disposed about a substantially common axis with at least one of said arrays being located within the said vat and the remainder and at least one of said arrays being located outside the vat, said rollers further being arranged to define a spiral polygonal path such that said cloth can follow said path and contact the rollers with only one of its faces, means within said arrays to receive the cloth therefrom and to apply to the cloth a force to maintain the same against said rollers, spray means associated with and spaced from the rollers positioned outside of said vat and arranged to direct a spray towards the rollers and thus against the cloth directly being engaged by the rollers, brushing means operatively disposed above the spiral path towards the end thereof and sprinklers operatively disposed with respect to said brushing means to sprinkle the cloth where it contacts said brushing means, said means to receive the cloth including means for guiding the cloth from said spiral to a direction paraliel to said axis; the latter said means comprising a cylinder including coaxial sections having oppositely directed threads for engaging the cloth and transversely spreading the same and substantially circular members diametrally opposed with respect to said cylinder for limiting contact of the cloth therewith.

(References on following page) References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS White June 20, 1871 Knibiehler Mar. 19, 1918 Voegeli Apr. 26, 1927 5 McGann July 30, 1929 Khanzadian June 7, 1932 FOREIGN PATENTS Germany July 15, 1933 

